Friday, 25 November 2011 from 12:00 to 18:00 (GMT)

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Event Details

Design Ecologies: the ill defined niche

Architecture, Design, Performance and Ecology Symposium

A symposium to explore the possible shared territory between doubt and value of designing.

The ill defined niche begins with the provisional premise that our environment is composed of a multiplicity of ill-defined ecological niches, each of which is a potential home for living and non-living forms. Through an understanding that objects cannot be fully explained in terms of their material constituents and the energy within them, objects seems to be something over and above the material components that make it up, but at the same time it can be expressed only through the organization of matter and energy. This paradox allows burgeoning design practices to go beyond shaping geometry, to shaping the internal structure of material. But in that case, what is the connection between the empirical ground, the contingent material support of human thinking, and the abstract 'designer' that is the condition for a 'whole' of thought?

Human communication as a driver for change in natural processes of our biosphere. Anthopocene is widely acknowledged as a geological time in our environment leading to a reshuffling of species assemblies from local to global spatial scales created in laboratories which enter our ecosystems. New behaviours of ecological systems shift the tellurian dynamics in our biosphere towards 'ecological novelty'. Novelty as a strikingly unusual deprived objective of our experience.

Accompanying the symposium is the launch of the peer-reviewed journal Design Ecologies 1.2, published with intellect books, which is to ascertain the consequence of fitting a design project with our environment. The overall aim of this research is to profoundly re-define and re-shape thinking in design.

Aesthetic experience is one of the most common ways to value our environment. Whether it is having a walk in the park, cycling through a country lane, or just sitting in your garden, we can appreciate the aesthetic qualities. We could go on to say that we should be developing environmental sensitivity through aesthetic experience.

'Anti-static objects: exploring the Internet of things that do not exist'

1615Discussion

Through original design exploration, this symposium proffers a critical vision towards the built environment. These conceptions challenge the everyday thinking in design by offering a transdisciplinary framework for design production.

1700Design Ecologies 1.2 launch and drinks

Exhibit The ill defined niche

This is an exhibition on projects that you don't normally exhibit. These are the projects that come before the finished project. What you see in this exhibition is a collection of tentative bits of ideas, a collection of things that inspire the designer in their own personal creative process. Sometimes the most precious experiences in design just get left behind or lost in a folder, a cupboard or under the bed. This exhibition is a celebration of these fragile ecologies. The unexplained, the familiar, the uncanny.

Yorgos Loizos is a designer and artist based in London. He received a master of architecture with distinction from the Bartlett UCL and previously studied at École Spéciale d’Architecture, and the Edinburgh College of Art. He is at yorgosloizos@gmail.com and http://cargocollective.com/yorgosloizos

James Moore is a PhD candidate at Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts, Planetary Collegium. Since 2003 and concurrent with a doctoral research process, a series of projects have been undertaken. Each investigates the composite moving image, specifically in the context of real-time computation and interaction. This arose from a desire to interrogate the qualia of the moving image within interactive systems, relative to a range of behaviours and/or observer positions which attempt to situate users as conscious compositors.

Shaun Murray, Ph.D. is the principal Editor of Design Ecologies. He is an international architectural professional with more than 10 years experience in Architecture and Environmental Design focusing on Ecological principles and Design Communication. Was awarded a PhD in Center for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts (CAiiA), Planetary Collegium, 2011. He is now the owner of a new design practice called ENIAtype based in London (http://www.eniatype.com/). He has published 20 articles internationally and wrote a book entitled Disturbing Territories (Springer Wein New York, 2006), which explores the ecological consequences in architectural design.

Donald Smith is founding Director of CHELSEA space at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. Now in its sixth year CHELSEA space has gained a reputation for an international and interdisciplinary programme covering art, design, and popular culture and for its ongoing series of exhibition publications. Smith is also the Director of Chelsea Futurespace and is a member of The Committee Without Agenda at Testbed 1; he is consultant on a range of art/architecture projects and continues a professional practice making paintings and architectural interventions.

Felix Robbinsgained a Diploma in Architectural Design from the Bartlett, University College London in 2002, an MArch in 2003 and qualified professionally in 2006. Felix has worked for dECOi architects in Paris and oceanD in London. His work for these practices has included residential, cultural and competition projects - all developing innovative approaches to digital design practice and widely published. Since 2006 Felix has worked at Make, working on large-scale commercial and urban regeneration projects. Felix has also taught as a visiting critic at Diploma and MArch level at the Bartlett and AA. He is currently conducting a PhD by Design at the Bartlett supervised by Neil Spiller and Ranulph Glanville – research that speculates on the possibility of design to transcend the contradictions of post-logical architectural production.

Chris Speed, Ph.D is a research active designer working within the field of Digital Architecture, Human Geography and Social Computing developing new forms of spatial practice that transform our experience of the built environment. He is a Reader in Digital Architecture across the Schools of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh, where he teaches undergraduate, masters and supervises PhD students.His research focus is best characterised by his own PhD thesis entitled ‘A Social Dimension to Digital Architectural Practice’ which presented a critical opportunity for Digital Architecture to develop new forms of practice that embrace social computing principles within a cultural geographical model of space. Chris has sustained a critical enquiry into how digital technology can engage with the field of architecture through shows, publications and events including: V01D exhibition and edited book 2001, Catalogue exhibition and Arts Council digital teachers pack 2002, IBEAM Fonts by Architects exhibition 2003 and CD-Rom, and Out of Scale exhibition 2004. Chris is also deeply involved in the conceptual and practical development of a series of applied digital architectural projects including: Arch-OS - Operating Systems for Architecture (www.arch-os.com) at the University of Plymouth, a infrastructure to stream social, network and environmental data to the internet, and the Centre for Sustainable Futures Green Screen (2007-08), a 50m2 LED matrix located within an atria window of a large urban building.